Teesside MP Matt Vickers has led a parliamentary debate calling for more action to save UK high streets.
Stockton West Conservative MP Matt Vickers said high streets played a huge role in communities, opportunities, jobs, social mobility and local pride, with small family businesses “the people-powered engine room of our economy”. He accused the government of failing to back high streets and “beating them into extinction”.
He added: “The national insurance tax raid, the slashing of small business rates relief and the ending of the community ownership fund will do irreparable damage to our high streets, and that is before we mention the impact and costs of the Employment Rights Bill.
“As a former Woolies worker, I know only too well the consequences for businesses. Not only are we squeezing many businesses out of a future, there is a cost to be paid on the prices in those stores and costs on those jobs and the opportunities that they provide for young people and others to get on in life.”
He said his constituency saw progress under the last government, with the £23.9m Town Deal for Thornaby allowing a new swimming pool to be built, a new vocational training centre, and the forthcoming demolition of the “eyesore” former Golden Eagle hotel.
Stockton North Labour MP Chris McDonald thanked Mr Vickers for securing the debate, but countered his “doom and gloom about Stockton”, pointing to “the achievements of our local Labour council in Stockton in developing our town centres”. Mr McDonald said the demolition of the Castlegate shopping centre “resulted in a much higher rate of occupancy, up to 90%, at the other end of the street, but opened up for the first time in hundreds of years a vista across the high street to the river”.
He said the forthcoming urban park would be the centre of future events and was attracting new businesses, including three hospitality and leisure businesses to open up on Stockton High Street.
The debate saw a number of MPs back Mr Vickers’ calls for government action to support high streets. He also referred to new car parking charges of £1.50 for three hours in Stockton and Yarm, which he has criticised, and which have been defended by council leaders as “modest” and a careful and balanced decision made to manage the authority’s difficult budget position and, they believed, to encourage customers to stay longer.
Answering on behalf of the government, Trade Minister Douglas Alexander said: “The government wants to support strong, thriving, mixed-use high streets that generate high footfall and high degrees of social capital in their local communities. That is why we are focused on a five-point plan to breathe life back into local high streets—high streets that, if we are candid, have faced challenges from changing retail patterns for some decades now.”
After the debate, Mr Vickers said: “The debate was about shining a light on an issue that matters to millions of people and thousands of our amazing local businesses. I’ll keep pushing for policies that give our high streets the fighting chance they deserve. This isn’t just about economics – it’s about the beating heart of all our communities.”
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